Philip Roth death: Tributes pour in for ‘truly great American writer’

The writing world has begun mourning the loss of award-winning satirist Philip Roth, the famed author of American Pastoral, who has died aged 85.

One notable name to pay tribute was David Simon, creator of The Wire, who has been working on a TV adaptation of Roth’s provocative novel The Plot Against America.

“Improbably, I had the honour of meeting Philip Roth just a few months ago to discuss an adaptation of Plot Against America,” Simon wrote on Twitter. “At 85, he was more precise and insightful, more intellectually adept and downright witty than most any person of any age. What a marvellous, rigorous mind.”

Former Monty Python member Eric Idle called Roth an “amazing novelist”, while author David Baddiel said of Roth on Twitter: “The last of those who David Foster Wallace called the Great Male Narcissists – Bellow, Updike, Mailer and him – to go. He was properly funny. Not high literature funny. Laugh out loud, stand-up funny. And all the other stuff he could do, but funny is the thing.”

Michael Green, the screenwriter behind Logan and Blade Runner 2049, tweeted: “We all wanted to be Philip Roth. None of us came close.”

Improbably, I had the honor of meeting Philip Roth just a few months ago to discuss an adaptation of Plot Against America. At 85, he was more precise and insightful, more intellectually adept and downright witty than most any person of any age. What a marvelous, rigorous mind.

— David Simon (@AoDespair) 23 May 2018

So sad about Philip Roth. An amazing novelist. I love his books. Oh dear. Well at least we have them…

— Eric Idle (@EricIdle) 23 May 2018

RIP Philip Roth. The last of those who David Foster Wallace called the Great Male Narcissists – Bellow, Updike, Mailer and him – to go. He was properly funny. Not high literature funny. Laugh out loud, stand-up funny. And all the other stuff he could do, but funny is the thing.

— David Baddiel (@Baddiel) 23 May 2018

When people worry what their book is ‘about’ remember Philip Roth wrote a work of genius about a man who couldn’t stop wanking.

— Matt Haig (@matthaig1) 23 May 2018

Waking up in London to see that Philip Roth is dead, and with him, I think, an era of American fiction. https://t.co/68BIYuhFmD

— Hari Kunzru (@harikunzru) 23 May 2018

In my 20’s, my favorite book was Portnoy’s Complaint.

In my 50’s, my favorite book is American Pastoral.

Both were written by Philip Roth, the first writer I discovered who gave voice to my specific fears and longings as an American Jewish male.

What a towering figure. RIP

— Bryan Behar (@bryanbehar) 23 May 2018

Farewell to Philip Roth. A truly great American writer.

— Hugh Fraser (@realhughfraser) 23 May 2018

RIP Philip Roth. This one hurts, both me and all of literature. He taught me when I was at Columbia and was a huge influence, impressing upon me the importance of writing through the hard times. I have many favorite books by Roth, but this is one of them. pic.twitter.com/KbbvA7XR3w

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) 23 May 2018

RIP Philip Roth. Eighty-five years is a good long life but I still gasped at seeing this news. A giant. I can think of many readers and writers who didn’t love him, but none who couldn’t learn something from reading him.

— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) 23 May 2018

We all wanted to be Philip Roth. None of us came close.

— Michael Green (@andmichaelgreen) 23 May 2018

Roth’s literary agent, Andrew Wylie, said the author died in a New York City hospital of congestive heart failure. He published over 25 books and was a fearless narrator of sex, death, assimilation and fate, from the comic madness of Portnoy’s Complaint to the elegiac lyricism of American Pastoral.